The girl, who was a pedestrian, was in collision with a bus carrying school children at the junction of Marsh Road and Jones Way in the town, at about 3.30pm yesterday.

The air ambulance attended and took the girl to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital for treatment. Police today described her condition as serious.

The girl is a pupil at Cliff Park High School in Gorleston. Headteacher Rob Sherington said: “Everyone at the school is shocked and saddened to hear that one of our Year 7 pupils suffered injuries in a road collision yesterday afternoon.

“Our thoughts are with our pupil and her family at this difficult time and we wish her a very speedy recovery. We are keeping in regular contact with the family to offer what support we can.

“We are a close school community and this will have impacted on several of our students. We have arranged support for those students who have been affected and will continue to ensure that they have the chance to talk about what happened in the days ahead. Our students have shown great maturity, concern and care for the pupil involved and we are doing all we can to keep them informed about what is happening.

“We will also be assisting police in whatever way we can with their investigations into what happened.”

Witnesses or anyone with information are asked to contact PC Dave Carter at Acle Road Policing by calling 101